A Week of Mixed Messages, Civil Justice Style

In the mid-1980s, both Maryland and Missouri enacted pretty severe “caps” on compensation, which did nothing to reduce insurance rates for doctors. (Among other states.  See Appendix for full list.) While the hopes of Maryland patients were dashed this week when the Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the caps, overturning a lower court decision that had invalidated them, patients in Missouri had renewed hope.  The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments this week asking that their state’s severe cap be overturned.  This comes after a dynamite St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial slamming the medical establishment for forcing this cruel law on Missouri citizens, which we wrote about.

Also this week, Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), who chairs the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as 18 other Senators, sent letters to President Obama and leaders in Congress “urging them to repeal the limited exemption for insurers from federal antitrust laws as part of the final version of major health care legislation.”  Incredibly, the insurance industry is the only industry in the country allowed to engage in anti-competitive behavior - except for Major League Baseball, that is.  That’s why, while the insurance industry’s right to price-fix and collude is being condemned, the NFL went to the U.S. Supreme Court this week and asked that the exemption apply to them!  Interesting timing.

And finally, the rabidly anti-civil justice organization, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, never disappoints with its own brand of mixed messages, announcing again that it may be suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its greenhouse gas policy! Here’s how Chamber CEO Tom Donohue put it: “There are a number of options and processes available both in the courts and in other parts of government.”  How nice for them.  Meanwhile, the Chamber hosted a conference this week on the economy to push its anti-consumer business agenda, in a space constructed by and paid for by AIG.  On second thought, no mixed message there!